Campbell looking to thrive with Oakland

RAIDERS Jason Campbell Oakland's new QB has friendship with Favre

Quarterback Jason Campbell throws to a receiver during the first practice session of summer training camp for the Oakland Raiders in Napa, Calif., on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

Quarterback Jason Campbell throws to a receiver during the first practice session of summer training camp for the Oakland Raiders in Napa, Calif., on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

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Quarterback Jason Campbell throws to a receiver during the first practice session of summer training camp for the Oakland Raiders in Napa, Calif., on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

Quarterback Jason Campbell throws to a receiver during the first practice session of summer training camp for the Oakland Raiders in Napa, Calif., on Thursday, July 29, 2010.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Campbell looking to thrive with Oakland

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Jason Campbell worked out with Brett Favre this summer, as he has in the past, and Campbell and his dad have spent many hours fishing the ponds at Favre's farm in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Favre, 12 years Campbell's senior, will join them once in a while and maybe they'll talk about how they learned to play quarterback out in the country.

Accuracy drills consisted of trying to knock the bark off trees with a football.

Campbell grew up just down the road from where Favre did. Campbell's dad was a substitute teacher for Favre's daughter. And Campbell knows just like his old quarterback friend that if the bass aren't biting, rural Mississippi is a great place for introspection.

While Favre again was pondering retirement this offseason, Campbell had his own issues, namely trying to figure out why the Redskins didn't like him and recalling how the Washington offense varied year to year, practically week to week.

"Brett told me about how it took him five years to get comfortable at Green Bay, and he knew how hard it was to change systems all the time," Campbell said. "He told me not to get lost and forget what it was that got me to this point - to play my game."

Campbell, 28, will get his chance to do that with the Raiders. He might be a leader and a deep-ball threat the Redskins didn't take the time to see.

Campbell was the Redskins' first-round pick in 2005. Besides the revolving door of offensive coordinators (four), he had to deal with the wandering eye of owner Daniel Snyder. In the spring of 2009, there was the courtship of Jay Cutler and the wining and dining of Mark Sanchez.

"It was like having your manhood questioned, like they were saying I was not a good quarterback while I was still on the team," Campbell said.

Snyder couldn't land Cutler or Sanchez, and even though Campbell had a good year statistically last season, Washington finished 4-12. So Snyder went after and got Donovan McNabb, and Campbell was sent to Oakland in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.

"Coming here is kind of like being drafted all over again," he said. "It's a new start, you know. Oakland is trying to turn it around. They're trying to become a new team. They made a lot of changes, and I think they're trying to do things the right way and get it going in the right direction."

Looking for a leader

After three years of enduring JaMarcus Russell's work habits and mistakes, the Raiders were ecstatic to acquire a quarterback who takes care of the football.

"We're just real hungry and passionate for that kind of leadership," coach Tom Cable said. "He has been welcomed, and he has taken it and run with it."

"Right now, I feel we've got a good guy, a dependable guy, a guy who's going to work hard, who will be there for us every day," he said. "He's not going to shy away from anything. We know what to expect.

"You know where the balls are going to be. That's really all you can ask for as receivers, a dependable guy that's going to go out and work hard every day. So we have that now. We're ready to work. We're ready to forget about everything else and move forward."

At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Campbell has a strong arm, but didn't show it much in Washington. After being drafted out of Auburn for Joe Gibbs' down-the-field system, Campbell had to trade in his playbook and learn new footwork every season, ultimately as a bad fit for Jim Zorn's and then Sherman Lewis' West Coast offense.

Campbell is not one to make excuses, but he hasn't thrown the same route to a receiver often enough to make any adjustments on the fly.

Plunkett parallels

Besides the four offensive coordinators in Washington, Campbell had four in his four years at Auburn and is playing for his ninth offensive coordinator or play-caller in 10 years.

"I speak nine offensive languages," he said. "Every time I started to get comfortable, things got changed up on me."

Jim Plunkett, discarded by the Patriots and 49ers before winning two Super Bowls with the Raiders, has a lot of similarities with Campbell. Plunkett had eight head coaches in his first eight NFL seasons.

Plunkett said recently he lost some confidence after the 49ers cut him: "No matter how hard I worked, I kept hitting my head on the wall. I thought maybe it is me."

Campbell says he didn't get to that point.

"While it seemed like I might have been constantly looking over my shoulder, I couldn't," Campbell said. "Because I was still starting, and we had to get ready to do battle in the NFC East."

Campbell had passer ratings of at least 104.1 three times in Washington's four-game winning streak in 2008 before the offensive line fell apart. His completion percentage has improved each season. Last year, he had career-best numbers (3,618 yards, 64.5 completion percentage, 20 TDs).

"I had a pretty good year, but we lost three of four offensive linemen and that made it a very tough situation," Campbell said.

"It's not like it's going to be a run team or just a passing team," he said. "We're going to be able to do a lot of different things. Our whole game is to keep defenses off balance."

Running back Rock Cartwright was with Campbell in Washington and is with him now in Oakland.

"I am so excited for Jason," Cartwright said. "The best thing for him was to get a fresh start and have a chance to run the offense here. We all like playing football, but you can tell Jason is really, really enjoying it again."

All years with Washington. Did not play in 2005 (*Wins-losses in games he started):